1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method.
2. Related Art
In the related art, in a printing apparatus that prints an image on a medium (paper, fabric, etc.), a test pattern is printed on the medium, and a correction process (calibration) is performed depending on the reading result of the test pattern (for example, see JP-A-2008-302521, and JP-A-2005-271372).
In JP-A-2008-302521, a large number of patches having different gradation values are printed on a test pattern, and a gradation value of an image to be printed is corrected depending on the read optical density of each of the patches (so-called color calibration is performed).
In JP-A-2005-271372, patches the optical densities of which vary depending on the relative position of a head are printed, and a position deviation amount is detected by detecting a patch having the highest optical density, so that print timing and print data are corrected depending on the deviation amount. In addition, in JP-A-2005-271372, a yellow patch is printed on a pale blue base because a optical density difference between yellow patches is not noticeable on a white sheet of paper.
It is only necessary that a patch having the highest optical density be detected because an object of JP-A-2005-271372 is to detect a position deviation amount. However, when the color calibration as discussed in JP-A-2008-302521 is performed, it is desirable that the optical density of each of the patches be detected with high accuracy.
Therefore, in a case in which a test pattern for color calibration is printed, when there is another color base under a patch having a color (for example, yellow) the optical density difference of which is hardly noticeable, a problem occurs in which the optical density detection accuracy of the color (for example, yellow) is reduced.